Visiting Scholars

Part of the graduate program mission involves engaging our graduate students with scholars and researchers in Music Education. Our visiting scholars have included:

October 25, 2012

Dr. Alan Spurgeon

Professor of Music Education, University of Mississippi Department of Music

Director of Music Education and Graduate Coordinator

At the graduate level he teaches research in music education and history and philosophy of music education. Now in his twelfth year at Ole Miss, Dr. Spurgeon previously taught at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and vocal music in the public schools of Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. A native of Missouri, Dr. Spurgeon holds the B.M.E. from Truman State University, the Master of Music degree from the University of Arkansas and the Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. In addition he has completed Level III training in the Orff-Schulwerk method of music education at Colorado State University and level III training in the Kodaly method of music education at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. He has served in leadership roles in the Music Educators National Conference (NAfME) as President of the Oklahoma Music Educators Association, President of the Mississippi Music Educators Association and President -Elect of the Southwest Division of NAfME. He is Past-President of the history research group of NAfME. He formerly served on the board of the Organization of Kodaly Educators and on the Editorial Board of the Orff Echo, the journal of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. He is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education and is Editor of the Southern Journal of Music Education, published at the University of Mississippi. He is the author of Waltz the Hall: the American Play Party (2005) and is currently working on a book on British ballads he has collected in the Ozarks region of the United States. He has published numerous articles on a variety of topics in music education and has presented workshops throughout the United States. His research areas are the history of music education in the United States and southern regional folk music.

March 17, 2011

Dr. Christopher Azzara

Professor of Music Education

Chair, Music Education, Eastman School of Music

Affiliate Faculty, Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media

Presentations:

Teaching Improvisation: How to get Started

9:45 - 11:00 a.m. - 110 Music Building I

Assessing Improvisation

1:00 - 2:15 p.m. - 102 Music Building I

Pianist, arranger, author, and educator, Dr. Christopher Azzara has made important contributions to advancing the understanding of creativity and improvisation in the music learning process. An innovator in the area of music teaching and learning, he teaches and performs internationally, and has authored numerous articles, arrangements, and books, including Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, Creativity In Improvisation, and Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series (GIA). His research and publications are concerned with meaningful relationships among listening, creating, improvising, reading, composing, and analyzing music in vocal and instrumental settings. He performs as a soloist and in various ensembles and has played on and produced many studio and educational recordings. In Rochester, he performs with free-lance musicians, members of the Eastman School of Music Faculty, and members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

September 14, 2010

Dr. Sheila C. Woodward

Assistant Professor of Music Education
Chair, Music Education, University of Southern California Thornton School of Music

Presentations: Critical Matters in Multicultural Education; Music and Wellbeing: Foundation for a Research Agenda.

Dr. Sheila C. Woodward is chair of music education at the USC Thornton School of Music. She is a native of South Africa and earned her PhD in music education from the University of Cape Town in 1993 and a performer’s licentiate in Organ from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (London). She previously taught at the University of South Florida, USA, and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.Dr. Woodward has served on numerous professional boards internationally; among them being two terms on the Board of Directors of ISME (2004–08), three terms on the ISME Early Childhood Music Education Commission (1992–1998, two of those as chair), and two terms on the Executive Board of the Society for General Music (MENC, USA). Dr. Woodward’s research focus is music and wellbeing. She explores this from before birth to adulthood, with studies on the fetus and neonate, the premature infant, the young child, the at-risk youth, the juvenile offender, and the adult musician. She has published numerous articles, in addition to chapters, in Elliott’s Praxial Music Education: Reflections and Dialogues (Oxford, 2005) and in Malloch and Trevarthen’s Communicative musicality: Narratives of expressive gesture and being human (Oxford, 2009). She has been awarded generous grants to promote international exchange programs in which South African musicians visit the USA to work and perform alongside American students and professors, and she has directed numerous outreach programs in both countries.

October 22, 2009

Dr. Jill Sullivan
Associate Professor of Instrumental Music Education
Arizona State University

Presentations: Five Steps to Successful Sight-Reading for Instrumental Classes; A Century of Women's Bands in America

Dr. Sullivan teaches instrumental methods, doctoral research classes in quantitative and historical methods, and a master's level course in instrumental literature. She also serves as the ASU CMENC chapter advisor. Prior to working at ASU, she held teaching positions at the University of Oklahoma, Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and Sequoyah MIddle School in Broken Arrow, OK. She has experience teaching band to K-12 students. In addition, Dr. Sullivan started a New Horizons Band for senior adults at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Sullivan's research agenda includes historical publications pertaining to 19th and 20th Century women's bands and quantitative pre-service and in-service music teacher investigations. She has published in several refereed music journals, including American Music, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, Journal of Band Research, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Journal of Music Therapy, and Journal of Research in Music Education. She is currently completing her book American Women's Military Bands during World War II as part of The Scarecrow Press new series on American Wind Bands. She also recently completed eight biographical entries for the second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music. She has presented her research and teacher-pedagogy workshops throughout the United States and internationally. Dr. Sullivan has served as the chair for several education organizations, including national chair of the Gender Special Research Interest Group (SRIG) of MENC, and as a member of the international editorial board of the journal Research and Issues in Music Education. Dr. Sullivan holds degrees from the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, and Illinois State University.

March 19, 2009

Dr. Steven Demorest
Professor of Music Education
University of Washington School of Music

Presentations: Teaching Musicianship in the Choral Rehearsal; Developing a Program of Research;
Lost in Translation: Exploring Cross-cultural Music Cognition

Steven M. Demorest, Professor of Music at the University of Washington, conducts the University of Washington Men’s Glee Club and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral music methods, research methods, psychology of music, music and language, and the cognitive neuroscience of music. In 2007 he received the Weston H. Noble award for outstanding contributions to choral music from Luther College, his alma mater. Dr. Demorest’s research interests include the cross-cultural musical understanding, music cognition, sight-singing pedagogy, and the application of neuroimaging techniques to music research. Demorest’s recent publications include articles on enculturation effects in music cognition, sight-singing instruction, children’s preferences for world music, pitch-matching, and neuroimaging studies of cross-cultural musical understanding. He is the author of Building Choral Excellence: Teaching Sight-singing in the Choral Rehearsal, published by Oxford University Press, and the editor of a series of lectures by Weston Noble, Creating the Special World, published by GIA. His scholarly work has been published in Music Perception, NeuroImage, Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, Council for Research in Music Education Bulletin, Psychomusicology, and the International Journal of Research on Choral Singing. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, Musicae Scientiae, Empirical Musicology Review, and the International Journal of Research on Choral Singing.

March 2 & 3, 2009

Dr. Donald Hodges
Covington Distinguished Professor of Music Education
Director of the Music Research Institute
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Presentations: BioMusic: An evolutionary basis for musicality; Neurosciences and Music: Music and the Brain; Emotional Responses to Music

Donald A. Hodges is Covington Distinguished Professor of Music Education and Director of the Music Research Institute. His degrees are from the University of Kansas (BME) and the University of Texas (MM and PhD). Previous appointments include the Philadelphia public schools, the University of South Carolina, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. Hodges is contributing editor of the Handbook of Music Psychology and the accompanying Multimedia Companion and has published numerous book chapters, articles, and research papers in music education and music psychology. He has made presentations to state, national, and international conferences and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. He is past president of the Texas Music Educators Conference and Texas Coalition for Music Education, has served on scientific organizing and review committees for the International Society for Music Medicine and the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, and was Chair of the Music Perception and Cognition Special Research Interest Group (Music Educators National Conference) and Research Chair for NCMEA. Dr. Hodges' recent research has focused on a series of brain imaging studies of musicians.

January 29 & 30, 2009

Dr. Edwin Gordon
Internationally renowned researcher, teacher, autor, editor, and lecturer in music and music education

Presentations:Improvisation: A Harmonic Approach; The Evolution of Music Learning Theory; Music Audiation: What is it and how do I develop it?

Edwin E. Gordon is widely known as a researcher, teacher, author, editor, and lecturer. He and his work have been portrayed nationally on the NBC Today Show, in the New York Times, and in USA Today. Through extensive research, Professor Gordon has made major contributions in the study of music aptitudes, audiation, music learning theory, tonal and rhythm patterns, and music development in infants and very young children. He is the author of six highly regarded music aptitude tests, as well as numerous books, articles, and research monographs. Gordon earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in string bass performance from the Eastman School of Music. He played string bass with the Gene Krupa band before going on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1958. From 1979 to 1997 Professor Gordon was Carl E. Seashore Professor of Research in Music Education at Temple University in Philadelphia. Prior to that he served on the faculty at SUNY Buffalo and at the University of Iowa. In recent years Professor Gordon has been exploring music development with infants from one month to eighteen months old and refining those skills in children from eighteen months to age three. His current research interests focus on investigating the levels of Music Learning Theory, stages and types of audiation, developmental and stabilized music aptitudes, and rhythm in movement and music. Professor Gordon's professional materials are now housed in the Edwin E. Gordon Archive at the University of South Carolina/Columbia. The archive houses all of Gordon's publications, journals, recordings, manuscripts, and video and audio cassette tapes of various workshops and seminars.

Doris Gazda, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Penn State University, taught for many years as a string specialist in the Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools. Most recently, she was a faculty Associate at Arizona State University. She has served nationally as Secretary for the American String Teachers Association, President of the National School Orchestra Association and Member-at-Large for ASTA with NSOA. Nationally known for her leadership and expertise in string instruction, Ms. Gazda presents workshop sessions at conventions and teacher’s meetings and guest conducts for city, regional and all-state orchestras. In the spring of 2006 she was appointed String Editorial Consultant for Carl Fischer Music. In 2008 she was awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota honor of Member Laureate - an initiated member of the Fraternity who has achieved international distinction in the music profession. Doris is co-director of a New Horizons Orchestra in Mesa, AZ. This orchestra is made up of older adults who wish to get back to playing now that they have time in retirement.

September 25, 2008

Dr. Alison Reynolds
Temple University, Esther Boyer College of Music
Associate Professor of Music Education

Presentations:Play + Music = Music Play: Dynamic Music Interactions with Young Children; Listen to Children’s Voices! They Have So Much To Tell Us!; Learning Sequences in Music: A Contemporary Music Learning Theory~ Current Topics

Dr. Alison Reynolds earned a Bachelors in Music Education from Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, and a Masters and Ph. D. in Music Education from Temple University. She began teaching at Temple University in 2001, after having taught at the University of Southern Mississippi (1998-2001) and Ashland University in Ohio (1993-1998). At Temple, she has taught Curricular Options, Assessment, Music Learning Theory, Teaching General Music, and graduate courses Research in Music Education, and Learning Theory in Music.

Since 2002, she has served as advisor to Boyer's Chapter of the Collegiate Music Educators National Conference Group, and has served as an editorial review board member for Research Issues in Music Education. She is also on the Editorial Board for CRME, and the Review Board for Visions of Research in Music Education.

Dr. Reynolds has published research in the Bulletin of the Council for Researcg in Music Education, Research in Music Education, and Journal of Music Teacher Education. She has presented her research at venues such as International Society for Music Education (ISME), MENC, Keokuk II, International Conference on Narrative Inquiry in Music Education, MENC All-Eastern Division Conference, New Directions Conference, International Service Learning Research Conference and International Conference on Civic Education Research.

Dr. Reynolds is co-author of Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum, Revised Edition, and Music Play: Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Caregivers (an Early Childhood Music Curriculum that has been translated into Korean, Lithuanian, and Chinese).

April 22, 2008

Dr. Rita Klinger
Cleveland State University
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music Education

Presentations: Ha-Ha This-a-way: Children's Songs and Singing Games; Cross-Cultural and Inter-generational Music for Children

Dr. Rita Klinger, Associate Professor and Coordinator fo Music Education at Cleveland State University, holds a Ph. D. in music education from the University of Washington. Dr. Klinger is a specialist in music teacher education with an emphasis on multicultural issues and the incorporation of world music in the K-12 curriculum. Since 1982 she has been involved in the preparation and supervision of pre-service music educators in the Bay Area, Seattle, and, for the past five years, at Cleveland State University. Dr. Klinger authored chapters in two Music Educator's National Conference Publications: Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education (1996), and World Music and Music Education: Facing the Issues (2002). In 2000, she edited a special focus on urban music education issue of Triad, the official journal of the Ohio Music Educators Association. Dr. Klinger is also a program author for the 2002 and 2006 Scott Foresman/Silver Burdett K-8 music textbook series Making Music. Dr. Klinger has taught music in both public and private schols to pre-school through college age students and is a frequent presenter at state, regional, and noational music education conferences.

March 18, 2008

Dr. Betty Anne Younker
University of Michigan
Associate Professor of Music Education and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Presentations: The Value of What We Do: Why?; Constraints and freedoms: Insights and Questions About Creative Thinking

Betty Anne Younker, Ph.D. (Northwestern University), is Associate Professor of Music Education and Associate
Dean for Academic Affairs. During her tenure at a previous post, the University of Western Ontario, she was
awarded the Pedro Goldman Teaching Award from the Faculty of Music. She was recently named the 2008
Alumnus of the Year by The Pennsylvania State University School of Music.

Dr. Younker's research interests include philosophy and pedagogy of music education, and critical and
creative thinking. Publications include articles in a variety of national and international journals and chapters
in several books, while paper presentations have occurred at multiple state, national, and international conferences.

Before appointments at the university level, Dr. Younker taught in public schools in band, choral, and general
music settings. In addition she has taught studio flute to beginning to university-aged students.
Presently she is the College Music Society board member for music education
and President-Elect for the Michigan Music Educators Association. As a musician,
Dr. Younker is a member of the Vocal Arts Ensemble in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and
adjudicates and clinics bands and choirs.

December 4, 2007

Dr. Louis Bergonzi
University of Illinois
Professor of Conducting and Music Education/Strings

Presentations:Band and Orchestra as World Music Ensembles: Understanding Reggae-Sprinkled Twinkle; To See in Living Color and to Hear the Sound of Silence: Preparing Music Teachers to Teach in Diverse Classrooms

Louis Bergonzi was appointed to the University of Illinois faculty in 2005. Prior to that appointment, he was on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music for 16 years, and earlier he held positions in various public school systems in Massachusetts. A frequent presenter at regional, state, national, and international teachers' conferences, Bergonzi's areas of expertise include orchestra rehearsal technique, conducting, and string teaching, particularly in an urban setting. Bergonzi's research involves secondary data analysis of large-scale, nationally representative data sets to consider issues in the sociology of music education and arts education policy. His efforts have garnered several research grants and fellowships, including Yamaha Music Education Research Project (1995-); National Endowment for the Arts (1993-95, 1997-); and Bridging Fellowship in Public Policy Analysis, University of Rochester (1995). Bergonzi is author of several books: Rounds and Canons for Strings: Shaping Musical Independence (Kjos, 2003); co-author, Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra, Vols. 1 and 2 (GIA, 2001, 2003); co-author, Americans' Musical Preferences (National Endowment for the Arts, 2001); and Effects of Art Education on Participation in the Arts (National Endowment for the Arts, 1996). He has had articles published in American String Teacher, Journal of Research in Music Education , Bulletin of the National School Orchestra Association, and Bulletin of the International Kodály Society. Among his many affiliations are president, American String Teachers Association (1998-2000) and national chair for its Urban Outreach Program (1993-1996); Music Educators National Conference; New York State School Music Association; Society for Research in Music Education; and the National Editorial Board of the Journal of String Research.

Presentations: Teaching Social Justice in the Music Classroom; Violent Play: The Politics and Musical Sublimation of a World at War

Randall Everett Allsup is a graduate of Teachers College Columbia University where his 2002 dissertation, Crossing Over: Mutual Learning and Democratic Action in Instrumental Music Education was awarded "Outstanding Dissertation of the Year" by the Council on Research in Music Education. Prior to returning to Teachers College as Assistant professor, Professor Allsup was coordinator of music education and director of bands at Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, and taught courses in music education at the Chinese Culture University, Taiwan.

Randall Allsup grew up in central Illinois, outside of Kankakee, and was the first in his family to graduate from college. A Pell grant recipient at Northwestern University, Allsup received a Bachelor of Music in saxophone performance, studying with Frederick L. Hemke. After graduation, he continued his training with Jean-Marie Londeix at the Bordeaux Conservatory, France. At Bordeaux, Allsup was awarded the prestigious prix d'or.

Dr. Allsup became interested in issues surrounding social justice and democracy from his work in schools in neglected neighborhoods of New York Ciry. First at Hayes High School in the South Bronx and then at the Our Children's Foundation in Harlem, Allsup has written about the challenges of reconceptualizing music pedagogy. His teaching is influenced by thinkers like Maxine Green, Paulo Freire, and John Dewey.

February 13-14, 2007

Dr. Michael Mark
Towson University
Professor Emeritus of Music
Former Dean of Graduate School

Presentations: Historical Perspectives of Music Education; Engaging in Historical Research; The Why of Music Education throughout Western History

Dr. Michael Mark is Emeritus Professor of Music at Towson University, where he also served as Dean of the Graduate School for fourteen years. Earlier, he was head of the music education program at Catholic University in Washington, DC. He has taught at Morgan State University, was Supervisor of Music for the Elmira, NY and Auburn, NY schools, and a music teacher in the Prince George's Coounty, MD schools. He is the author of several books and numerous articles and chapters on the history of music education, and has lectured and presented papers at numerous conferences, symposia and universities throughout the country and internationally.

He is a Fulbright scholar and a member of the Music Educators Hall of Fame of MENC, and the Hall of Fame of the Maryland Music Educators Association in 2005. Mark was president of the Maryland Music Educators Association for four years. He holds degrees from George Washington University, the University of Michigan and the Catholic University of America.

Nov. 1-2, 2006

Dr. Michael Hewitt
University of Maryland
Associate Professor of Music Education
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Presentations: Nurturing Independence for More Efficient and Effective Rehearsals; Self-Regulation and Self-Evaluation: Their Role in Instrumental Music Learning

Dr. Michael Hewitt earned his doctorate at the University of Arizona, his master’s degree at Michigan State University, and his bachelor’s degree at SUNY-Potsdam, all in the area of music education. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Maryland, where he has been teaching since 2000. Additionally, he serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music and as Acting Chair of Music Education.

He is a specialist in instrumental music education and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in this area. In addition he supervises student teachers, directs graduate research and advises the student MENC chapter. Prior to joining the faculty at Maryland, he was a band director at the elementary and secondary levels in the states of New York, Michigan, and Arizona.

His research interests are focused in the areas of music teacher education, self-regulated learning, and the impact of modeling on instrumental music learning. His research has been published in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, the Journal of Research in Music Education, and Contributions to Music Education. Additionally, he writes a column that focuses on the dissemination of current research for the Maryland Music Educator.

Prof. Hewitt has made frequent presentations that focus on instrumental music education at regional, national, and international meetings of the College Music Society, Music Educators National Conference, College Band Directors National Association, and the American Association for Higher Education. He is frequently invited by schools and other educational organizations to serve as a guest conductor, adjudicator, consultant, and clinician.

He lives in Columbia, Maryland, with his wife Michele, daughter Bethany (6) and son Caleb (3.5).

October 4-5, 2006

Dr. Robert Duke
University of Texas, Austin
Professor of Music and Human Learning
Director of the Center for Music Learning

Robert Duke is the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Centennial Professor of Music and Human Learning, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Director of the Center for Music Learning at The University of Texas at Austin. Widely published in music and education, he has directed national research efforts under the sponsorship of such organizations as the National Piano Foundation and the International Suzuki Institute, and has presented his findings at national and international conferences in education, music therapy, and music psychology. Dr. Duke has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Psychomusicology, and other prominent publications. A former studio musician and public school music teacher, he has worked closely with children with disabilities and children at-risk, both in the public schools and through the juvenile court system. He currently directs an active research program in motor skill learning and procedural memory at UT, where he also oversees the undergraduate teacher preparation program in music and holds the title Elizabeth Shatto Massey Distinguished Fellow in Teacher Education. He lectures frequently on topics related to human learning and behavior, presenting workshops and teaching demonstrations throughout North America. His most recent book is Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction.

April 3-4, 2006

Dr. Jane Cassidy
Louisiana State University
Professor and Chair of Music Education

Presentations: Music Education Research Policies and Practices; Using Music Education Research to Guide Your Teaching; Contemporary Research in Music Education

Jane Cassidy is Professor and Chair of Music Education at Louisiana State University where her responsibilities include teaching courses in elementary music education, music in special education, psychology of music, and measurement and evaluation and supervising student teachers. Dr. Cassidy is an active clinician invited to present workshops on current issues in elementary music education including the inclusive music classroom, curriculum development, classroom management strategies, and teacher effectiveness. She is the coordinator of Musical Mondays, a partnership with the public schools which provides musical experiences in an extended day program for elementary children through field experiences for undergraduate music education students. Her research interests center around musical development of infants and children, music education for children with special needs, and teacher effectiveness. Most notably, her research with critically premature infants is eliciting cross discipline interest from the music therapy and medical communities for its impact on establishing protocol for presentation of music in the NICU. She regularly presents research papers at national conventions of Music Educators National Conference (MENC) and the American Music Therapy Association. She has published extensively in music education and music therapy journals, has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education, currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Music Therapy, and is Chair-elect of the Music Education Research Council of MENC. In 1999 she was awarded a prestigious Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service at LSU.

November 29, 2005

Ms. Dorothy Straub
Past MENC National President
Retired K-12 Music Coordinator for Fairfield Public Schools, Connecticut

Presentation: The National Standards: How They Came to Be, How They Have Impacted Music Education Thus Far, and What the Future Holds for Music Education

Dorothy Straub is the former K-12 Music Coordinator in the Fairfield Public Schools where she also taught strings and orchestra. A graduate of Indiana University with Bachelor and Master degrees in Music Education, Ms. Straub is the past president of the Music Educators National Conference. As MENC president, she represented MENC at music education conferences in more than thirty states. She was involved in the development of national standards in music as well as advocacy efforts for the arts in education as a part of the National Coalition for Music Education. Dorothy is also a founder of the Fairfield County String Teachers. The Fairfield County String Festival has been effective in building string players and orchestra programs in Fairfield County. Ms. Straub has served as conductor of the Concert Orchestra of the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras for a number of years, and has been a guest conductor in Connecticut, New York, Massachussetts, Iowa, Nevada and Maine. In 1995 she received the ASTA Citation for Exceptional Leadership and Merit, and the NSOA Lifetime Achievement Award.

April 12, 2005

Dr. Harold Abeles
Teacher's College, Columbia University
Professor of Music Education and Chair, Department of Arts and Humanities

Presentation: The Arts in Education

Dr. Hal Abeles has been on faculty at Teachers College for more than twenty years. Dr. Abeles has contributed more than 50 articles, chapters and books to the field of music education. The Foundations of Music Education, the most widely used graduate textbook in the field of music education, is now in its second edition. Recent chapters by him have appeared in the Handbook of Music Psychology and the Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning. He is the founding editor of The Music Researchers Exchange, an international music research newsletter founded in 1974. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. He serves or has served on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychomusicology, Dialogue in Instrumental Music Education, and Update. His research has focused on a variety of topics including, the assessment of instrumental instruction, the sex-stereotyping of music instruments, the evaluation of applied music instructors, the evaluation of ensemble directors, and the verbal communication that takes place in applied lessons. He recently completed a study with Professor Judy Burton and Dr. Rob Horowitz on Learning in and Through the Arts.

March 22, 2005

Dr. Wendy Sims
University of Missouri-Columbia

Presentation: Ethical Behaviors and Issues in the Research Process

Professor Sims received her bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from Kent State University, and her doctoral degree in music education from Florida State University. A specialist in early childhood and elementary music education, she teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate music education courses, advises bachelor and master's degree students, and supervises doctoral student programs and research. Previously she taught K-6 general music, and for the past 18 years has volunteered weekly as the music teacher for two preschool classrooms.

Dr. Sims is an active researcher and writer, publishing articles regularly in national and international journals such as the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, International Journal of Music Education, and Music Educators Journal. She is editor of the book Strategies for Teaching: Prekindergarten Music, and co-editor of the book Music in Prekindergarten, both published by the National Association for Music Education. She has served on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Research in Music Education, as Editor of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, and as Research Editor of Early Childhood Connections: Journal of Music and Movement-Based Learning. She regularly presents research sessions and workshops at national and international conferences.

Dr. Sims has held national offices in MENC's Society for Research in Music Education, and has been active in the International Society for Music Education, serving previously as chair of the organization's Early Childhood Commission and as a member of the Society's Board of Directors, and is currently chair of the Publications Committee.

November 2, 2004

Dr. Alice-Ann Darrow
Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Therapy and Music Education
Florida State University

Alice-Ann Darrow, the Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Therapy and Music Education, came to in 2003 from The University of Kansas. She received her BM, BME, MM, and PhD degrees at Florida State University, and taught in music programs for students with and without disabilities in the Dade County Schools before going to the University of Kansas. Her teaching and research interests are teaching music to special populations and the role of music in deaf culture. Related to these topics, she has been the recipient of eighteen university, federal, or corporate grants, and published numerous monographs, research articles, and book chapters. She presently serves as chair of the Music Education Research Council for MENC: The National Association of Music Education, and on the editorial boards of the Bulletin for the Council on Research in Music Education and The Journal of Music Therapy. Darrow has been the recipient of: the Ella Scoble Opperman Faculty Citation award from the FSU School of Music, research and clinical practice awards from the American Music Therapy Association; and while at The University of Kansas - the University’s Silver Anniversary Teaching Award, an Intrauniversity Professorship in special education and hearing science, and membership in the KU Women’s Hall of Fame.

Presentations:Relationship of Research and Practice in Music Ed.Tests and Measurements in Music Education

Dr. Gromko holds degrees from Luther College, San Diego State University and Indiana University; past teaching includes music at the elementary and secondary level in Iowa, California, Hawaii and the District of Columbia; research concerns the development of children's symbol use in music and aural perception; articles appear in the "Journal of Research in Music Education," "Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education," "Psychology of Music," "Musicae Scientiae," "Music Educators Journal," "General Music Today," "Research Studies in Music Education," "Contributions to Music Education" and "Educational Theory."